It’s June 22nd and I’m leaving Newfoundland today. I have not had a chance to write my blog but will do it in the next few days (update just getting to it on June 26th).
A nemesis bird can be very challenging mentally, but as well may take you to fabulous places.
The Steller’s Sea Eagle continues to evade me, but I had awesome encounters with Puffins, Humpback Whales, and Caribou during my free time in Newfoundland. Also met some great people, both tourists and locals. (Great to meet you Caroline, Andrea, and Tracy. I have some great photos for you Caroline if you get in touch btw.)
Anyway, my work took me across the entire island and because the days were very long I was able to squeeze in some nature time. I also took one day off in Trinity.
My goal for wildlife encounters were the same as last May. To see Caribou, Puffins, and the Steller’s Sea Eagle. I blogged about that too, massive dip trip. But never a bad time on the rock, and for me work takes priority so I miss things. It’s a dream that one day I can go to Newfoundland strictly as a tourist. Newfoundland and Greece are my two favorite places in the world. Fortunately, in Greece I was just a tourist. Perhaps I’ll retire there one day. Anyway before this becomes a whale of a tale…
Amazing to get a view of the baleen on this amazing Humpback Whale.
Before I did any work on the island I took my day off. I had booked a boat tour in Trinity for the morning and figured it was a slam dunk for me to see Stella. The giant Sea Eagle had been spotted every day for 2 weeks previous to my trip. But that was the one day she/he was not spotted. And of course, this beautiful Steller’s Sea Eagle was spotted the next day and many times since. And so to you Trinity, I say we will meet again! Stella must think I have more to see before we meet.
I did manage to get a little bit of time with the Puffins in Elliston the evening before. Not as close of an encounter as I had hoped, but really you are always battling time in Newfoundland as it’s such a vast province and so much to see. You just need to enjoy and try to go with the flow. I enjoy it all, even if it seems as though I’m disappointed, I’m always left wanting more, and always return.
Even though I didn’t see Stella, I had a great tour of Trinity Harbour with Captain Steve from Trinity Eco Tours. Beautiful spot, great tour company.
So off to work across the island. All the way to the West Coast. I decided to spend the night in Rocky Harbour instead of Cornerbrook since it would take me the same amount of time to drive back to St. John’s to see clients. The morning of the Solstice I had a 7 hour drive ahead of me so that I could see stores on the following morning.
I had a hunch, and also knew it would be the longest day of the year, so took a detour up the Viking Trail to look for Caribou.
In my wildest dreams I would not have imagined such a wonderful sighting.
The Caribou babies almost melted my heart on the Summer Solstice on the Viking Trail. One of my favorite wildlife encounters of all time for sure.
Mother Nature sure delivered on my favorite day of the year. I have never been away from Nova Scotia on the Solstice. For about 30 years I’ve been celebrating the Solstice at home with day trips and nature. Always drinking in the beauty. Always a beautiful day. This day in Newfoundland I felt like a vampire the beauty was so palpable. My heart got filled to the brim and I will remember it always. The wonderful thing about travel is you can dial up a memory anytime you need a little boost. This one will work wonders for melancholy days and insomnia!
Back to work I went in St. John’s the next morning. When I finished up in the afternoon I was rewarded with enough time to drive down to St. Vincent’s to see Humpback Whales that were close to shore chasing Capelin. This is something I have hoped to do for about 5 years now but it never lines up, and did not disappoint!
When I arrived the sand was hot and so I took off my shoes and walked in my bare feet. As soon as I was far enough away from my car that it didn’t make sense to backtrack I realized the error of my judgement. Capelin like a pebble beach. Ouch and hot…LOL. I thought I could cool my feet in the water. Once I got close to the water I looked at the tide and thought that it looked very dangerous. I did let the waves that were coming up to the sand touch my feet but was very careful and glad I could sense the danger. I’ve found out since that the drop off is 60+ feet deep right by the shore, which makes perfect sense as there are giant sea creatures swimming right up. Also, brrrrrrr! Even the wet sand and tiny contact with water was sooooo much colder than the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It’s since been pointed out to me it’s the North Atlantic.
Mother Nature is wild and wooly sometimes and gentle and forgiving at other times. Keeps me on my toes.
Thank you to the hospitality of many wonderful Newfoundlanders during my visit. Special thanks to the lady from Fogo Island who offered me home made fish and brewis while we were chatting at breakfast in Grand Falls.
Everything about Newfoundland is completely different than anywhere in the world.
A little reminder that wildlife does as it wishes.
Visit if you can, it will change your life.
With love to “the rock” and all your creatures, 2 footed, 4 footed, winged, and finned.
It seems to be a recent tradition of mine to go birding in
the Vancouver area after our annual RC Pets conference. Whether it is one day or two I try to make
the best of my free time in the beautiful province of British Columbia.
What I would really love to see someday are the Coastal Wolves of Vancouver Island, but that is not practical in February, and so I bird.
I had about 8 hours of daylight available until I had to be the airport on my day off so I connected with Jim Palmer, and we headed out to the “valley”. I had two targets in mind that were being regularly seen in that area, both Falcons. We dipped on one, but I got to see the one I will never see in Nova Scotia, so it all turned out just fine.
We could not locate the Gyrfalcon and believe it may not be around anymore as it hadn’t been spotted in a couple of days, but that’s okay potentially I’ll get one in Newfoundland in April. If not this year, then the next perhaps. We did get to see two Coopers Hawks in the location where the Gyr had been frequenting, and a Red-tailed Hawk was also eyeing up their territory so perhaps the farm area was a bit “over-raptored”.
We did get the Prairie Falcon, which is quite unlikely to ever turn up in Atlantic Canada with its strictly western range. We have never had a report of one in Nova Scotia to my knowledge. It made a brief and speedy flyby just as we stopped the car. Then it flew directly into a cluster of very tall trees in the distance where we would perhaps never have spotted it without being alerted to it’s location
Hopefully this excuses my nearly unidentifiable shot. We did get excellent looks in a 60 zoom scope, as well saw him fly close to the car and then followed with binoculars. My out the window shot is not so wonderful either, but those buggers move fast!
this is with a crop sensor and 400mm lens and this is also cropped and zoomed in on the computer!got the car window open before I could even get the door open so still not ideal but happy to have documented this wonderful lifer
Of course, I had hoped to get shots like the ones I saw on Cornell before we set out.
image taken from Cornell library – it would appear they set the bar a little too high…LOL
But I clearly did not, so here are some pretty duck photos I
took later.
Northern Pintail and a couple of Green-winged Teal heading for the hills it would appearmale Northern Pintail – there were 250 of them in the settling ponds at the Iona Park
I got two other lifers that day, California Scrub Jay (also
bad photos) and Marsh Wren.
high up in a tree behind someone’s house was this California Scrub Jay with more time I may have gotten a better photo but you gotta keep on moving or you’ll miss stuffthe Marsh Wrens are small and skulky but didn’t get a bad shot – the real treat was listening to them sing though – super cool little birds – there were lots of them at Iona Park
As usual the best part of birding in British Columbia was
the scenery.
a view of Grant Narrows from “the valley” in Pitt Meadows
Perhaps one day when I finally see my Coastal Wolves, I can see some Tufted Puffins too.
Tofino, and maybe someday the mighty Haida Gwaii are calling my name…
When I first started planning a December trip back 8 months ago or so, I had hoped to visit Central America. I decided that was not a trip I’d feel comfortable doing alone and put the feelers out for someone to join me but in the end realized I’d be travelling solo and revised my plans. Costa Rica or Columbia will have to wait, and Turkey is next on my list so it will not be soon if ever, but the universe decides at times.
My trip research became focused on closer, safer areas to
visit that might have rain forest and excellent swimming, and the Caribbean started
looking like a better possibility for me.
I’d never heard of Antigua and Barbuda, and their rainforest
is basically non-existent at this point, but it is a safe, English speaking,
area with ridiculously beautiful beaches and no shark problems. The girl who loves to swim in the ocean was
intrigued! I had looked at some other Caribbean
destinations as well but the solo travel safety factor, and the Magnificent
Frigatebird Colony, urged me to book my flights to Antigua in the end.
I was a little concerned initially that the Frigatebirds
were not going to be around because of Hurricane Irma in 2017 but discovered most
of them had returned due to volunteer efforts to restore their habitat.
The part of visiting the Caribbean that most people don’t think about is that the history of the Caribbean is slavery and plantations. That was only a short 200 or so years ago and the effects linger in varying degrees throughout the islands. Sobering to think of indeed and we must never repeat this.
In the case of Barbuda, a large part of their reparations are in the form of the land ownership structure. “People in Barbuda own the land collectively. Any citizen over 18 years old has the right to occupy residential land, graze animals and use land for commercial purposes, as long as projects are not considered major developments. ” from Wikipedia – Barbuda Land Acts of 2007
This has all been recently disrupted, and Robert De Niro is
at the center of the controversy.
There is not a lot I can do other than sympathize with the cause, but I am glad I supported local people and local services and learned more about this in person.
I have no opinion one way or another about Robert De Niro (of course I love his movies and consider him to be one of the best actors of our time), but I will say I believe his security people thought I might be a Paparazzi as I pointed my large telephoto lens and binoculars into the bushes to photograph this Barbuda Warbler.
Barbuda Warbler near the gate to Princess Diana Beach
In fact, a lot of rich natural habitat surrounds the
Princess Diana Beach area and is part of the land he has purchased, and it is
all worth protecting and development would be unfortunate. In addition to the habitat
on land, there is the nearby Mangrove stand in the lagoon which houses the 2nd
largest colony of Magnicent Frigatebirds in the world, and a healthy corral
reef surrounds the island of Barbuda.
There is pink corral sand in Codrington Lagoon in fact.
It would be wonderful if for once humans left a bit of
habitat unspoiled. If you read this Mr.
De Niro I hope you understand the importance of this and work with conservation
groups and local people to preserve the habitat. I’m sure anyone visiting for at least 2 weeks
would enjoy the natural beauty too.
Everything doesn’t have to be about money and development.
I will say that the foreign aid that was designated for the
people of Barbuda certainly does not seem to have reached them.
Instead of large development on the island, I think small
businesses owned and operated by local Barbudan people would be more charming
and in keeping with the landscape.
Perhaps Robert De Niro can enjoy his property on the end of the island as a retreat and soak in the natural beauty and share it with friends. Would be a great place for Kayaking and other slowed down activities.
I am sure this could all happen with some cooperation and vision
of keeping the island pristine from large development.
A small corner of the world largely untouched I hope it stays that way as there is so little left.
Codrington Lagoon – on the other side of this strip is the 2nd largest breeding colony for Magnificent Frigatebirds in the worldMagnificent Frigatebirds in Codrington Lagoon – these are males in breeding plumage – they are also the national bird of Antigua the “birdy” side of Codrington Lagoon and the air filled with the national birds of Antigua in their sanctuaryPrincess Diana Beach near the old K Club property that was purchased after the Hurricane Irma disaster
Anyway, the rest of my vacation was on the larger island of
Antigua.
As promised the people were friendly, and there is nowhere on
the island that is not safe to visit. I don’t
want to focus entirely on the politics, but you can bet that the history of
Antigua and their courageous battle to form their own government and protect
their people has a lot to do with the hospitality of the island.
Many places in the Caribbean are not safe for tourists to
leave the resorts and plain and simple that is because the local peoples are
still being unfairly exploited. Poverty
and adversity do very little to create happy people.
That is not the reason I’m not the type of person to visit a
resort, but it does make me happy that I did not spend my money in a
resort. Foreign enterprise largely removes
the money from a local economy to my understanding.
If you can do it, it is far better for the local people of
any area to shop local and stay in local accommodations. I did this largely due to finances as I also
certainly cannot afford an all-inclusive resort, but I will tell you that I
still had a million-dollar experience.
Any food I ate on the island cooked by locals was wonderful (except I don’t like Choba it turns out, so pepper pot was a flop with me…LOL) and the prices were great. Mostly I ate chicken rice and veggies but if you are a seafood lover the Conch and Lobster are great choices.
yummy home cooked food at a little hole in the wall heavily frequented by locals at the corner of Hawksbill Road and I believe Gray’s Farm Road – you can’t find this place on map and I can’t remember the name of it but it is very close on foot to the Five Islands Moravian Church
My host Marco, and later my local taxi driver and new friend Omar took me to the grocery store so I wouldn’t have to travel too far. I stayed very close to Five Islands Village which is quite remote if you are staying off resort.
so you just know I told Omar he has to watch the Wire….LOL – thanks for all the local knowledge and safe travels Omar I wish you much happiness in your life!
I opted not to rent a car as driving in Antigua is not for the faint of heart. A drive through downtown St. John’s is stressful and tough to navigate for anyone not local. So instead I laid low, rested, went swimming, and arranged a taxi for anywhere I needed to go. Of course I did get a taxi into downtown St. John’s to pickup some Susie’s Hot Sauce for my Dad. Yup, it’s HOT!
I was also super fortunate as Five Islands and Galley Bay
area has some of the best bird habitat on the island and so I was surrounded by
birds at my accommodations.
Right on the property I had the following list of birds:
(Note as of December 12th – I will add more bird photos later still processing them all!)
Black- crowned Night Heron
Caribbean Martins (who were exhibiting nocturnal behavior and confused with bats by the locals…I saw them clearly and I will assure you there were birds)
Scaly-breasted Munia
White-crowned Pigeon
Common Ground Dove
Zenaida Dove
Bananaquit
Black-faced Grassquit
Antillean Crested Hummingbird
Caribbean Elaenia
Gray Kingbird
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch
Carib Grackle
Brown Pelican
male Antillean Crested Hummingbird – the female is actually more striking which is not the norm with most bird species – I believe it implies they are faithful matesthere was a family of Antillean Crested Hummingbirds just outside Spice cottage so I got to see them feeding this young one while having my morning coffeeOmar had asked me if I knew what the birds with red eyes that stared down from the trees on the hills were and I was stumped until later when I was sitting on the deck and got this creepy feeling – juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron pretty much harmless but certainly looks menacing!Brown Pelican very common bird in Antiguaanother bird I photographed while having my morning coffee – Caribbean Elaenia which is a type of Tyrannida Flycatcher so the reason I was awake early most morning was the noisy and very gregarious Gray Kingbirds insistedthe resident White-crowned Pigeons on the other hand were one of the shyest birds I have ever encountered
And within a short walk to Five Islands Village for lunch I found:
West Indian Whistling Ducks
Scaly-breasted Thrasher
Cattle Egret
Great Egret
Broad Winged Hawk
Because there were so many birds where I was staying I
really didn’t have to do much other birding around the island to find target
birds, but I did have a pretty great birding experience in the habitat across
the street from Runaway Beach (a popular tourist area where Sandals and other
resorts line the beach). The area is an
IBA named McKinnon’s Saltpond. Here is
my list.
And after almost 2 hours of birding, yes I did take a 5
minute dip at Runaway Beach. It would
have been ideal to balance that better, but meh.
Runaway Beach
I did stay one night on the other end of the island near Seatons, but my accommodations did not live up to my expectations so after one night I returned to the Galley Bay area and the heavenly accommodations.
I was supposed to have a kayak tour in Seatons with Antigua Paddles but the swells were very bad and it was cancelled. I was really sad about that because the owners had been wonderful to deal with when I booked, and I heard many good things about them and really wanted to have an experience where I could go slowly and look through the clear waters to marine life without snorkeling but the sea was super rough and there was no way to reschedule before returning to Nova Scotia.
a new favorite corner of the world at Galley Bay Beach
It was not really even safe for swimming in Galley Bay as there were 3 series of large waves breaking you had to swim out quite far to avoid them and since I was alone, I decided to spend some time practicing wave photography instead.
no swimming for me this day! storm surge in the Caribbean Sea at Galley Bay Beach
My island guide Omar recommended that I take a Wadadli Cat day tour around the island as an alternative and it was a great way to spend my last full day in Antigua.
We did zoom by the Greater Bird Islands and Captain George called out the White-tailed Tropicbird for me and I pulled the camera out of the dry bag briefly and got a doc shot between waves. I spent the rest of the boat tour explaining about birds to the tourists of course.
what us birders call a “doc shot” of a White-tailed Tropicbird – thank you Captain George!
With the birding accomplished, when we docked for a couple of hours at Green Island, I decided that floating on my back in the Caribbean Sea while drinking several Rum Punches was exactly what I needed to be doing. How I held onto my camera gear later when disembarking down the steps into the ocean is a miracle for sure!
Yeah mon! Swimming and Rum Punch in Green Island Bay
I was in Antigua and Barbuda, W.I. for a week by myself and I was often alone, but never lonely.
many Anoles kept me company on my visit to Antiguaone of the animals I had most hoped to see in Antigua was the Mongoose – there were two on the property where I was staying and although they were extremely shy I caught this one at sunrise one morning while drinking my coffee
My intention was not to spend much time birding on my trip of a lifetime to Greece this September, but yes I packed the binoculars.
Lots of beaching, eating, and relaxing was on the agenda with a little bit of birding to be mixed in.
I had the flu last winter and was down for a few weeks, pretty much bed ridden for a lot of that time and began dreaming of better times. And decided that my dream trip needed to be in the near future.
Armed with the internet, I printed out maps of Greek Islands and all the international airports and ferry routes and started to plan a little island-hopping vacation.
Things were pretty much par for the course until I saw a photo of a Dalmatian Pelican, and my plans came to a screeching halt.
Back to the drawing board. These endangered birds are not found in many places in the world but turns out they are quite plentiful in Northern Greece.
And so, my trip changed entirely to hanging out on one island and then flying up to Thessaloniki to rent a car and hit the wetlands of Lake Kerkini.
I will note that I would prefer to never drive in Greece again, so hopefully next time I go birding in Northern Greece it will be with a group of friends and a braver soul can take the wheel. But, it was a personal achievement and they say you should do something that scares you every so often. Uh huh.
I had reviewed eBird reports to choose my dates and locations. Honestly, this was not the best time of the year for the birds, but not that bad. I also wanted warm ocean swimming and for the tourist season to be over. All this left me with 4 target species (Bee Eater, Dalmatian Pelican, Eurasian Spoonbill, Hoopoe) and 1 that I thought might be still around but was in fact gone (Rollers).
My first target was found in Antiparos quite by accident. My 4 sleeps in Paros were not really intended to involve any birding, but you and I know we are always birding.
In good tourist fashion I took the ferry to Antiparos for the day to sight see and explore. Mostly I was taking snapshots for the folks back home, but I did pack the telephoto lens in my daypack just in case.
the scrub where I found the Hoopoe on the way to the most lovely beach – and I didn’t even go swimming because you know what – you can swim anywhere in the Cyclades
Wandering as I do, I happened upon some good scrub and figured it would be great habitat for migrants and after spending some time trying to figure out the new to me Hooded Crows, I continued with my big lens attached. Because I was switching lenses and photographing a variety of things I had a massive camera fail when the most beautiful of my targets appeared. I could not believe my eyes when a Hoopoe appeared right in front of me on a foot path to the beach. And because I had VC turned on, I missed the shot. You just can’t focus fast enough on the fly in the field to catch surprise birds that are moving. And your serendipitous target bird rarely stays still.
no Hoopoe photos but great battlescars I thought
I must say though seeing one of these guys in person on the way to check out this beach was still a highlight of my life.
Several new to me birds were also in the area, such at the Crested Lark and Sardinian Warblers
Back to the business of touristing I went, and visited a number of villages during my stay in Paros.
One of these was Aliki, where I was actually hoping to see birds. Aliki has a good salt pan behind the tourist beach that I had read might be dried up at this time of the year. Ummm…might be dried up.
the salt pan in Aliki
A spring visit is required, not recommended in my opinion…LOL
lovely tourist beach in Aliki
Gorgeous beach though, and fun to see the Octopus hanging on the lines to dry for the restaurants.
not a good day to be an Octopus I guess
Although the pan was dry, I still found a couple of lifers down the shore and had a nice cool off on my hike.
had an inlet all to myself to cool my tootsies
After much relaxing and twice a day swims, I was ready to head up north for the rest of my target birds, and the mighty Dalmatian Pelicans.
it was a tough 4 days in Paros…I’ll tell ya 😉
The drive from Thessaloniki was only bad for the first 20 minutes (just google driving in Greece) before the landscape changed to farmland and the first birds appeared. I had no time to stop as I was fighting daylight, but it was a group of about 25 small hawks which were most likely Kestrels. As I continued toward Kato Poria the mountains slowly rose around me as the sun settled in a soft glow. The hotel was not far off. I landed in complete darkness and awoke to the same the next morning.
The drive to the boat launch was just before sunrise, and once we launched the sun began to rise, right on schedule.
We were immediately greeted by a large group of terns, gulls, and our first celebrity pelican.
juvenile Dalmatian Pelican
Not long after the Pygmy Cormorants made their first appearance, and then the show began.
the star of the show
Dalmatian Pelicans are a pretty tough act to follow, but the large flocks of White Pelicans, Greater Flamingos, and Eurasian Spoonbills were a very decent second act.
Greater Flamingos
White Pelican
Eurasian Spoonbills
There were several other interesting birds but honestly for me the big waders were the main event.
The boat tour would have been enough for me, but of course I spent the rest of my day birding around Lake Kerkini. It’s so beautiful there that many Greeks visit in the summer just for a vacation, and not to bird at all.
Lake Kerkini
There is a lot of ground to cover and although I was delighted to see the Water Buffalos in Vironia, I felt I hadn’t spent my time well and wished I had more of it.
Water Buffalos – later I ate some seemed really surreal
The next morning, I was going to drive back in to Thessaloniki to spend the day touristing, but watching the news over breakfast I noticed there were large groups of protesters and police officers in the downtown area and figured that was not the thing to be in the middle of. I changed my hotel to be closer to the airport and decided to spend some extra time in Lake Kerkini.
Although it was not the original plan, it was just perfect. I meandered around on my own schedule with some knowledge of the area from the day before and found all the birds I missed the day before.
Squacco Heron
Happy in my soul, I promised to return…next time with friends.
Following a wonderful work conference in Vancouver last week, I took the opportunity to visit Vancouver Island for the first time over the weekend.
The quest for the perfect birding location not too far from downtown Van began last fall and I quickly narrowed it down to the Victoria region after consulting the Birding in British Columbia website.
A few years ago, I spent the day with a great birder in Las Vegas, Je Anne, who taught me to study the birds of the area you are visiting in advance and this has always stuck with me.
Along the way I’ve also learned not to wish for birds, but to look for what is expected in an area for the habitat and season.
Victoria is quite warm compared to the rest of British Columbia and migration comes earlier, although by and large I wanted to tick expected species not native to Nova Scotia such as the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.
Last year I birded Stanley Park after the conference and was most disappointed that I could not locate a Black Oystercatcher, and believe it or not, a Chestnut-backed Chickadee. So, the wish list starts there.
By Vancouver standards, quite a bit of snow had fallen overnight, and the city looked just beautiful from the Skytrain.
The bus ride from the train to the Twassen Ferry was quite messy as they didn’t plow, and we got a little stuck at one point but it was no big deal. Besides, we passed a group of Trumpeter Swans in some flats on the way and it was the first lifer of the trip so I knew I was on track. My co-worker who was also heading for Victoria, was underwhelmed by this sighting as is often the case with non-birders. We birders are used to this and shan’t be discouraged…LOL
Once we boarded the ferry I left my bags inside with my fine friend and went outside in search of feathered ones. I dipped on a few Alcids that I believe I missed by about a week, so I have a reason to return I suppose.
Rhinoceros Auklet and Ancient Murrelet were the two who got away. But I did pickup many Pacific Loons in the pass, which was pretty amazing but sadly no photos as there were so many birds I couldn’t figure out who to shoot.
From the ferry I headed for the car rental place which turned out to be right on the road I’d been told to visit for Eurasian Skylarks. As predicted they were fairly easy to hear, and just as impossible to see. Next.
I had my heart set on finding Canvasback Ducks but believe I missed them by days. With a heavy heart I set out to leave the Viaduct Flats but as I approached my car I heard the Robins making a ruckus and looked up to see the biggest Fox Sparrow I’ve ever seen high on a branch. Wait a minute, is that a Northern Pygmy Owl? Holy binoculars batman that is amazing! Backlit, Robin-sized, and perched high my shots will not be NatGeo quality, but I’ll take it.
On that note, the pressure I put on myself to achieve great photos in these circumstances is ridiculous. Riding around by myself to marshes and flats nobody who lives in the area even heard of with hardly time to stop in each place, overwhelmed by the songs of new to me birds, and changing lighting conditions, it is what it is. I must accept that a photo shoot is a very different beast. This is birding, and it’s all about doc shots. Some turn out not too badly and maybe someday you get to have a bit of time to do a shoot with a favorite down the road.
Anyway, I sort of thought that was good enough for one day and was thinking about calling it a day and trying to formulate a plan for the morning.
I got it in my head pretty early on that the Martindale Flats would be the mecca of my birding time, so when I saw a large sign on the highway for Martindale Road I couldn’t resist putting in some more birding time before supper even though I’d skipped both breakfast and lunch.
Serendipity for the second time that day as I met two of the best birders from the area, Daniel and Michael, who gave me a little tour of a local hotspot in the flats and helped me located a flock of Western Meadowlarks, Golden-crowned Sparrows and Brewers Blackbirds after looking over my list.
Mike and Daniel
Golden-crowned Sparrows
I did eventually head off for supper with a new major nemesis on the brain. Damn you Barn Owls, this is not over!
Sunday morning, I decided to start early right on the property where I was staying. The habitat at the Swartz Bay Farm and the end of Land’s End Road near the ferry is nothing short of amazing. Landed four lifers (here is my list) before I finished my morning coffee! As well the sheer quantity of songbirds on the property is amazing and there was only one small feeder that may not have even had food in it.
There were several birds I could not identify on site that eluded me. One was grunting and sounded large so possibly a ground/game bird?
One bizarre large sounding loud alarm call in the brush with the Towhees I never did identify. I’ve never heard anything like it and nothing came to mind, although perhaps to locals it would be familiar. I like a good mystery, so I’ll be back (or maybe for now I’ll just stalk other people’s eBird reports as it’s long drive from Nova Scotia).
I heard one song I would call Townsend’s Solitaire but won’t list it as I can’t be certain and didn’t locate the bird for sighting. Heard the Vireo scold call several times so would assume it was a Hutton’s Vireo but won’t list that either. Both are expected migrants for this time of the year, so I would not think either out of the question. The one bird I heard very distinctly that is not expected and rejected by eBird is a Black-throated Green Warbler. However, that is a bird I know by ear unmistakably so if it was not present then a mimic bird such as a Starling must be up to some tricks (and that is something that does happen for you non-birders). Again, nothing like a good mystery. I’d be delighted to see some eBird reports for this area. Perhaps get permission to bird the property as the people who run the inn are very nice. As well the little walking path by the highway across the street continues to be very birdy. I can’t make it back until next year at best, but it was great to be fully immersed in the music of songbirds. Overwhelming at first, things started to make sense as I put sightings together with songs and eliminated species and did some detective work. My spring ears aren’t even on yet as it’s the dead of winter in Nova Scotia, so I am pleased with how things turned out overall. Learning regional birds takes time so it’s coming along slowly for my British Columbia lists.
I had a free hour and a half for birding before meeting a good friend for lunch in Sidney, so decided to check out the Saanichton Spit. It took me a long time to find it but it was really worth the effort. Much of what I expected to see was not around this week (the theme of the weekend) but I got good looks at some Western Meadowlarks and was greeted by a group of 18 Northern Pintails and a number of very nosy Anna’s Hummingbirds so left pretty happy. Next time I will dedicate more time to this area and it’s spectacular habitat.
Western Meadowlark
Anna’s Hummingbird
I put an end to land-bird hunting for this trip and devoted the afternoon to search for shorebirds and seabirds. Much dipping ensued but that is not always bad as you know.
The Black Turnstones and Surfbirds were both to be an easy catch, alas neither made an appearance. I figured at this point I’d narrow things down to my one shoreline nemesis, the Black Oystercatcher, and was prepared to put in the rest of the time before my flight for a look at one.
As I ran out of places to search at Cattle Point, a nosey group of River Otters popped up on the rocks and that was so wonderful I thought that was the end of gifts from the universe for the day.
River Otters
No sooner did I put the keys in the ignition did two Oystercatchers pop into sight right in front of my car. Hopped out and got my photos before they flew up alarmed and back out of sight.
Honestly, at this point it’s all gravy so I took a little stroll down at Turkey Head and saw yet another Black Oystercatcher, but this time much closer.
Black Oystercatcher
Overall a pretty great day, and as often happens to me the minute I got in the car and started driving it started raining hard.
That is always my signal that the little portal to the birding heaven has closed for the day.
Get it where you can I say, we all need a little bit of wonder in our day.
Sixteen new to me birds for this weekend included:
Black Oystercatcher
Northern Pygmy Owl
Trumpeter Swan
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Eurasian Collared Dove
Eurasian Skylark
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Red-shafted Northern Flicker (ours in Nova Scotia are the same, only Yellow-shafted)
Bewick’s Wren
California Gull
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Pacific Loon
Pigeon Guillemot
Western Meadowlark
Brewers Blackbird
Favorite photo of the weekend is not the sharpest, but it makes me smile.
Golden-crowned Sparrow with a sleepy friend
Thank you, Mother Nature, for being most agreeable, and to all the lovely people I met along the way. Until we meet again…Happy Birding.
